


A Birthday Present

by Ryo Hoshi (Hoshi_Ryo)



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Aftermath, Background Relationships, Cultural Differences, Fluff, Gen, Human/Troll Society, Post-Sburb/Sgrub, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-14
Updated: 2014-04-14
Packaged: 2018-01-19 08:11:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1462096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hoshi_Ryo/pseuds/Ryo%20Hoshi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Now that everything's over and they've gotten a restored Earth--now with trolls--and a chance to finish growing up, Dirk's going to make sure that this birthday of Jane's goes better than her sweet sixteen.</p><p>They've all made mistakes, but admitting it's part of growing up, right?  Right.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Birthday Present

The plan was simple, really.  He’d at least played a big role in fucking up her 16th birthday party, and he might possibly be part of why Jake was only Roxy’s friend now, what with having fucked off back to HellMurder Island when their new universe came with a recreation of their Earth.  He owed her a birthday that went actually pretty well, and Roxy had already read him the riot act.

Her boyfriend, Jane’s Dad (and fuck that was actually kinda creepy) had just given him a glare of Stern Fatherly Condemnation.

The defense that Jane had never really mentioned how she was an outcast at school sounded too hollow to even him, never mind that it was true.  Dirk knew he ought to have figured out from how much shit she’d been willing to put up with from them that she hadn’t any other friends.  Even now that he got to share the same era as her, he was pretty confused by human standards of beauty.

He knew he didn’t like women who conformed to the standards he’d seen humans hold up.  They were _scrawny_ , thin at the cost of muscle mass, and he entirely understood why the trolls of this new Earth just weren’t that into human supermodels.

He didn’t get why anybody would want someone so _pathetic_.

It had taken a while for it to sink in that Jane was an outcast among her human peers, and why she’d been so shy in asking them if they’d provide concrit on the gymnastics routines she worked on when she was younger.  On some level he had just assumed that anybody who was so obviously strong would have suitors knocking her doors down.

Sometimes, he couldn’t ignore that he may have embraced the assumption so he could indulge in his crush on Jake.

After all, what was wrong with shoving her out of the way when _she_ was the one who could easily enough find someone else, and he wanted Jake for himself?

Now that he lived in the same era as her and was having to go to the same school, he knew better.

(It didn’t help that she _was_ getting hit on by trolls occasionally, but socially that just made it worse, because of the reputation of trolls and particularly of humans who would date them.  The rumor mill just assumed she was, and that was why she had taken to wearing skirts…)

He’d made reservations for just him and her at a nice restaurant, fancy enough that he’d had to figure out where exactly was the suit his overlaid memories of this world insisted he had.

She turned up in a nice little black dress, a string of pearls around her neck.  “…Dad gave them to me today.”

“They look good.”

They were sat quickly, and Dirk encouraged her to order quickly—the dinner wasn’t the whole plan for the evening, just the only one he’d told her about.

He knew she had nothing else going for that night.  Her on-paper twin probably had already ended up at Karkat’s hive, and her Dad and Roxy…

That was not going to ever stop being awkward.

Once they’d ordered, though, there wasn’t much smalltalk.  It was a comfortable silence, though, or at least Dirk hoped it was.  The place was set up nicely for a feeling of intimacy, and the table he’d asked for felt nicely private.  He could understand Roxy and his discomfort with crowds, but Jane had developed one, too…

He hoped she’d smile before the night was over, though he wasn’t surprised that they ended up eating quietly, too.

The dinner was just a prelude.

As he took care of the check, Jane glanced at her cellphone.  “So, are we heading home now?”

He shook his head.  “There’s a theater not too far from here.  It’s mostly an arty place, but they sometimes run old films, too…”  He’d gotten to see one of his Bro’s movies on the large screen there not too long ago, when they’d somehow managed to obtain a print.

Jane’s curiosity had not died entirely during the disaster of a game, and she was willing to go see what Dirk had planned.

He got what he was hoping for when she saw what was running: _When the City Sleeps_.  (And he was not going to stop being amused that the same place was that was proud to run films from classic directors like Fritz Lang was _also_ eager to run his Bro’s deliberately shitty works.  There was nothing that would stop that from being a thing, ever.)

**Author's Note:**

> In case it's not obvious, they got an Earth based off of the Alpha's version. Eventually, the Beta Strilondes will meet their Alpha selves...


End file.
